Knicks still a title contender

Saturday

Feb 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM

When the door to the locker room swung open Wednesday night, most of the Knicks were already dressed and some gone, ready to start a much-needed five-day break. Some were battered and bruised, tired and sore.

Steve Popper

When the door to the locker room swung open Wednesday night, most of the Knicks were already dressed and some gone, ready to start a much-needed five-day break. Some were battered and bruised, tired and sore.

And all were confident.

The Knicks limped into the All-Star break with three losses in their last four games, a mediocre 14-13 record since racing out to an 18-5 start. But as they departed for their various locales — a handful bound for the All-Star Game and most of the team heading to beaches to rehabilitate — the Knicks left insistent that what you saw at the start still applies.

If you lost faith it's easy enough to explain. But Knicks coach Mike Woodson and his team maintain that they are a championship contender this season.

"I think we still got a legitimate shot absolutely," Woodson said. "Absolutely. ... The fact that we're still sitting at the top of our division and we're still fighting. We could have lost that a long time ago."

Outside the locker room some have lost that faith. The Madison Square Garden crowd loudly booed the home team Wednesday in the fourth quarter as they were dropping another game.

But inside, the team backed up its coach. "I agree with him 100 percent," Tyson Chandler said. "I was just talking with some guys before I walked in here and I was telling them, 'Look. You're not going to have too many times in your career when you can say you have a legitimate shot to win a championship. I only had one time in my career and that was the year we won. And this year, we've got a shot.'

"When we come back, we've got to let everybody understand that. You don't want to pass up an opportunity like this in your career because you always look back and wish you could've done things different. As athletes the worst thing to ever have is regrets, so we have to come back ready."

Chandler knows what it takes, having won a title already in Dallas two years ago. Perhaps it is easy for him to speak with this sort of bravado as he heads out to his first All-Star Game. But his teammate in Dallas, Jason Kidd, was already out of the locker room, not speaking after another dismal performance.

While the Knicks can claim that they didn't bring Kidd to play 30 minutes a night, he has played that much and the Knicks now see that they need him. When he was at his best this season, so were the Knicks. But he's been far from that of late.

Over the Knicks' first 23 games Kidd shot 45.9 percent overall, but 48.3 from beyond the arc. Since then he has dropped to 34.8 and 30.6 — and even worse, over the last nine games, 19.4 and 16.1.

"Probably rest is going to do him some good," Woodson said. "With him getting some rest he's got to rethink some things too in terms of how he can continue to help us and to stay at the top. That's what it's all about at the end of the day. I still got enough confidence in Kidd. He's going to make shots when he's really got to."

It's not just Kidd, though. The Knicks have flipped through a variety of lineups and Woodson has hinted changes could come after the break again. Rasheed Wallace is expected back shortly if his foot holds up. Iman Shumpert looked more active and athletic Wednesday than he has at any point since coming back from major knee surgery.

The Knicks likely will resist any major change with one Eastern Conference general manager saying that New York has not been active on the trade market as Thursday's trade deadline approaches.

Carmelo Anthony, who has maintained that he doesn't believe change needs to be made, echoed his coach and said that the pieces are in place for a title.

"Oh, without a doubt," Anthony said. "We lost some games. We dropped some games we should've won. Without a doubt our confidence is not going nowhere. We're still competing for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, still at the top of our division. Right now we're second in the East. So as far as our confidence that's not going nowhere. We've just got to regroup as a team and after the break come back ready to rock."